Poverty Research Center to Host Panel on Segregated Housing Feb. 13

University of Kentucky faculty members will join Richard Rothstein, author and renowned scholar, on Feb. 13 for a panel discussion examining the history of segregation in housing in America. The program will run from 1 to 2:30 p.m. in Woodward Hall, Room 307 in the Gatton College of Business and Economics Building. The event, which is sponsored by the Center for Poverty Research at the University of Kentucky, is free and open to the public.

In his recently published book, "The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America," Rothstein contends that government entities deliberately and unconstitutionally imposed residential racial segregation nationwide in the 20th century.

“Desegregation is not only desirable; it is an obligation; ‘let bygones be bygones’ is unacceptable if we wish to call ourselves a constitutional democracy,” Rothstein said.

Rothstein is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute, a fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and a fellow of the Haas Institute at the University of California, Berkeley.

Joining Rothstein on the panel are:

• Melynda Price, the William L. Matthews Professor of Law in the UK College of Law and director of the African American and Africana Studies program in the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as a noted author.
• Robert Schwemm, the Ashland-Spears Distinguished Research Professor and Everett H. Metcalf, Jr. Professor of Law in the UK College of Law, who is a nationally recognized expert on fair housing laws.

Author and UK political science Professor Mark Peffley, who also serves as director of the Quantitative Initiative for Policy and Social Research (QIPSR), will serve as moderator for the discussion.

“Richard Rothstein’s new book thoroughly documents how poverty was concentrated along racial lines in America’s cities through housing policy,” said James Ziliak, director of the Center for Poverty Research at UK, Gatton Endowed Chair of Microeconomics, and executive director of the Kentucky Federal Statistical Research Data Center. “UKCPR is pleased to host this event to shed light on the historical interplay of housing, poverty, and race, and potential policy responses going forward.”